G&G-Fan

I read your article on WIRED and since I’m not sure where else to post this I thought I may as well do this here.

Most of your article is actually good and informative. However, one thing from it honestly rubs me the wrong way: “Then, when the film does return to Jedi’s main heroes and their celebration, their scenes together are cut to ribbons, shifting focus to the main characters of the prequels: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Shots of the protagonists of this trilogy hugging and smiling at one another are gone, replaced by ghosts from other movies.”

What?

Which version of the special edition did you watch? Certainly not one that actually exists. I’m curious to see whatever alternate universe version of the end of Return of the Jedi you watched. None of the main characters of the original trilogy had their scenes cut in the ending. A couple shots were shortened by a couple seconds to fit with the new music and nothing more. It’s not even noticeable at all. They literally ADDED a shot with Wedge, an original trilogy character, so there is no way you can actually say they tried to remove the original trilogy characters from the ending. They were not “cut to ribbons” at all. And what do you mean “shifting the focus to the prequel characters” and “replaced by the ghosts”? The ghosts literally had more screen time in the original version of the movie then in the special edition. You’re acting like they gave the force ghosts a ton of new screen time when they didn’t. They still only appear for a grand total of three shots. What you’re saying would be like if they cut the shot of Luke and Leia reuniting and replaced it with one of Anakin and Obi-Wan reconciling, which didn’t actually happen. Most of the scene still focuses on the original trilogy characters. I seriously don’t understand how you got this impression. Your point was already very well made, you didn’t need to exaggerate anything to support it even more.

Also it seems that you don’t ever acknowledge that the changes could have multiple purposes. You say everything was just for the sole purpose of practice for the prequels while not realizing that maybe it was killing two birds with one stone: making changes George wanted to make while also allowing to test new techniques. If they actually didn’t care about the original films at all, why would they fix up some of the garbage mattes, redo the wipes, revamp the sound mix, and do every other change that objectively improved the films?

I honestly would still like to see what Adywan had planned for Boba’s new death.

Interesting. I’m glad to see there’s a version that reinserts Hayden Christensen.

I would also definitely recommend using the special edition version of the Rancor scene and the scene in which the Emperor sends Vader to the command ship to get rid of terrible black lines around the Rancor in the entirety of its scene and Vader in one of the shots.

Not sure if this would really be considered radical or not, but maybe add some ads visible on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith advertising Anakin as “The Hero With No Fear” just like in the lore, showing how Anakin has become celebrated as a war hero, showcasing some of the propaganda Palpatine has been pushing to further his agenda, and also adding a bit of irony considering fear is the exact thing he gives into in the film.

I’m honestly interested in seeing your versions, especially Revenge of the Sith. I don’t have a problem with the way his turn was done in the movie but I’m interested in seeing a different take.

BedeHistory731 said:

Better yet - photoshop in a 2001 Honda Civic next to Yoda’s hut.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Was thinking of doing that in my ANH and ESB edits actually.

Damn you outright dissing on hedgesmfg’s edit

Though I’m not sure if I can help (partially because I’ve never used saber and also because I don’t entirely understand what you mean) it looks fantastic so far!

Cinefy said:

Finished up editing Vader contacting Emperor scene, It’s a bit rough around the edges especially the audio; tried to make deepfake mouth movements more realistic than before but still isn’t 100%, this is for G&Gs-fans A New Hope edit, if else wants it I can send a download.

Full scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KuXsSo-o5A

Dude this is freakin’ incredible, I love it! I don’t think I can thank you enough! It’s so awesome.

Please send me the download link.

On second thought, this probably belongs in the Expanded Universe forum since it’s main subject is the Vader comics. If you’re an admin please move it.

I made a thing. I’m really proud of it and worked hard on it. Wanted to share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCxnQg9VBII - a 15 minute video at the G&G-Fan youtube channel
 

The blurb: ‘In this video I take a deep dive into a very poignant moment in the Star Wars Canon that truly showcases the complexity and inner psyche of the most iconic villain of all time: Darth Vader.’

Add LEGO Yoda death sound to Yoda’s death in ROTJ

Cinefy said:

Would require audio, depends what you’re thinking

Something like this first draft I made months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am4HiwXBCAc

Dude that Emperor hologram looks excellent! I could really really use your help on something for my ANH edit if you’re willing to.

Not unless you refilmed the scene.

Besides that’s cool. By showing Vader literally physically lift up a whole person it shows his strength. He’s not just strong with the Force.

Nice job! I think I might use this for my edit now, considering he now actually sounds like Temuera Morrison. If I were to do it, I would also remove the shot in which he takes a shot but it looks like he’s not even trying to hit Luke (considering he’s supposedly a super skipped bounty hunter but misses the shot by a mile).

Has anyone attempted to make a new Hayden ghost for Return of the Jedi that doesn’t reuse the original’s body and has a better smile?

I actually had an idea for the exchange between Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi before their duel to be more consistent with the prequels. It would start with Ben saying “Anakin…” (almost like a last ditch effort to reach him), only for Vader to immediately respond with “Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him.” (from Rebels) and then Vader makes his first strike (I’m using SC 38 reimagined for my edit so it will be Vader making the first strike, as it should be IMO).

I think it fits better as “When I left you, I was but the learner” implies he was still Obi-Wan’s student, when in Revenge of the Sith he is no longer Obi-Wan’s Padawan, rather a Jedi Knight in his own right.

Not sure if the Kenobi show will render my idea weird or not though since the two will be meeting again in that show.

TestingOutTheTest said:

You said it yourself, that Luke isn’t as powerful as the prequel-era Jedi.

Haha, you got me. Good point. I still feel like he could use some more training to be honest. I just find it jarring seeing Yoda begging for Luke to stay and then when he comes back he just says “No more training do you require.”

I have been thinking of doing the idea in which the rescue of Han Solo taking place almost immediately after ESB and then Luke returns to Dagobah for a year or so. That way the original structure is retained, though Vader arriving at the Death Star would have to be moved to later.

TestingOutTheTest said:

Also, regarding scenes you want such as the canon comics version of Vader’s “No!”, I suggested in Hal’s thread for TRoS that they create new scenes or stuff like Adywan did with the OT; however this should require collaboration, since I don’t think you have enough resources for new scenes matching the quality of the PT and OT, respectively.

One idea I have is using the Unity game engine, I recall it being used to animate 99% of every scene in the recent live-action remake of The Lion King.

That would be really awesome, but you’re absolutely right about me requiring collaboration. It would probably even need somewhat of a budget. I’d need a Darth Vader suit similar to the one in ROTS (I really do want to cosplay as Darth Vader anyway), someone to play Sidious who’s willing to wear make-up that looks exactly like his appearance in ROTS and do a stunt in which they get slammed against a wall, and a CG environment that looks exactly like the room in ROTS. Unless you’re suggesting the characters also be CG, in which case I guess that could be tried out but I’m not sure how that would look compared to the rest of the film.

Star Wars Theory seems like the perfect guy to collaborate with since he did a Vader fan-film with a Vader suit and worked with a pretty good Palpatine actor. FXItInPost would also probably be able to pull it off (I feel like SC 38 is proof of it). But the chances of me getting in contact with either of them, let alone collaborating, are slimmer then a dime.

If I were able to pull this off though, that means I could also definitely pull off a scene of Vader visiting Padme’s grave too, which would be great for my ROTJ.

If anyone’s willing to help, I’d love it. Bringing even just one part of the Darth Vader comic is the stuff of my dreams.

It’s kinda concerning that AlaskanSandman hasn’t been on for awhile. I hope this project isn’t dead, I was looking forward to it.

Also am I the only one who’s noticed that the file for Malevolence is an hour long and there’s a whole 30 minutes of just black?

What Hal said. Just downloading the videos off of YouTube and putting them in your edit along with HD footage definitely wouldn’t work. They definitely have interesting ideas (my favorite is the R1/ANH interlude with Qui-Gon and Yoda and Vader telling Sidious about the death of Kenobi; those actually feel like real scenes that would happen if the OT was made after the PT) but the videos are very low quality, the exchanges don’t always make the most sense (which is understandable since he’s working with limited voice material) and rely on reusing shots, often over and over again, to varying results. They’re interesting for what they are but aren’t convincing enough to be put in the films themselves.

I do plan on making my own HD versions of my two favorites for my ANH fan-edit myself (Qui-Gon and Yoda and Vader and Sidious; the former because it’ll break up the R1 Vader hallway scene, which I also plan on including, and the opening of the actual film, reminds us that Qui-Gon and Yoda are still relevant, shows that Yoda has been training under Qui-Gon, and it also has some character development for Vader, with the whole “He will never set foot on Tatooine” thing; the latter because it reminds the audience that the Emperor, the Sith and the Jedi are still relevant and shows that Vader has a greater purpose and mission beyond what the original film shows). I wouldn’t be using his videos at all, rather using similar but sometimes different sources, and the scenes won’t be exactly the same (for example, due to some feedback I will at least attempt at an Emperor hologram that looks like his ROTJ self). You could try and recreate some of them in HD as well, but be wary; while you may be able to get away with reusing shots a little bit, it definitely wouldn’t work to the degree NV does it (in which sometimes he is forced to use the same close-up for pretty much all of a character’s lines in a video). I’d recommend if you are to try this, improve the scene itself (remove any awkward nonsensical lines if need be), make sure there’s some time and space between the last time the footage was shown to try and mitigate the familiarity, make it short, and if possible and if you feel it’s worth it, remove the part that the footage actually comes from so it doesn’t repeat.

Just watched the first and second episode. Really good!

I only had a couple problems with the first:
-The thing Ventress says about having someone on the inside (which is an episode I actually quite liked) is never expounded upon.
-Anakin still says “I had everything under control” even though he asked for help.
-I think Anakin goes from hating his Padawan to caring about her too soon.

I think the second one was pretty much perfect (the spider bot does disappear from the table, but not really much you can do about that). This does seem to be a great way to get people into Clone Wars who don’t really feel like watching through the entire series.

May I have the link to this project so far?